Astrology News

Aries: Sparking the Uranus-Pluto Square

The current focus of planetary energies in Aries has had me revisiting the nature of the long, ongoing square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. This square began its effects in 2010, and will be ongoing through 2015 (but reverberating long after that). Uranus, a planet associated with revolution, rebellion, and shocking events, crossed zero degrees of Aries -- the beginning degree of the zodiac -- on March 11, 2011, day of the tsunami in Japan. Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008, the year that the world economy seemed to begin its slow crumble. The recent cluster of faster moving planets (the Sun, Venus, and Mars) in Aries moved across Uranus and squared Pluto over the past 2-3 weeks, a spark re-igniting the energy of the Uranus-Pluto square.

In my own life, I have experienced this as a bit of PTSD around the events of the past 3 years. In mid-March, I got the news that my dad was in the hospital due to a seizure. My dad, only 64, had a massive stroke 3 years ago which has left him severely debilitated. He has been wheelchair-bound since the spring of 2010, but he's been making a slow recovery with physical therapy since that time. While we have not been sure that he would ever walk again, we have been grateful that he has still maintained his mental abilities. He'd always been an intellectual guy with a gift for language and a sharp sense of humor, and he has miraculously maintained these gifts throughout this challenging time. So when I talked to my dad in the days following his hospital stay during the week of the spring equinox, my heart sank as I realized that something was wrong. He did not sound like my dad; something was missing.

By the next weekend -- just after the equinox, as the Sun, Mars, and Venus hovered around Uranus in Aries -- he was back in the hospital. They found through an MRI that he had had another stroke, not just a seizure. It was a small one, but it had temporarily affected his memory and his mental abilities. Fortunately, the effects of this stroke seem to have been very minor, and he has improved greatly over the past week. He is rebounding, and now again sounds like his old self. But this event brought me right back to the beginning of all of this for me, back to the reality that life can be upended with a phone call.

Viewing these personal events astrologically may seem odd to some. But understanding these influences helps me to navigate this time with more grace and understanding than I would otherwise. For example, watching my dad deal with the affects of this stroke has been a constant reminder to me that there are no guarantees of a long, healthy life. The awareness of this reality, however disturbingly Plutonian, is a gift. It has brought me sharply to the present, and I feel a more passionate intensity in following those things that are most important to me (Uranus in Aries). I feel I have no choice but to clear away the fears and heal whatever wounds are hindering my progress (Pluto work).

For the collective, the Aries energy begins to clear away about mid-April, as the Sun, Venus, and Mars shift into Taurus. Still, we move then into an intense period of eclipse activity, and an exact Uranus-Pluto square in May. You might reflect upon the past few weeks of Aries energy in your own life. Where have you been called to be more present in the moment? What wounds need tending, and what fears need confronting, before moving forward? At its best, Aries energy can reconnect us with our lust with life, and can propel us to take on whatever is in our way.